Journey with the Flame
by StardustFromReinmuth
Summary: 16 years, a lot of clones, seems to go by just like that. Follow Marco Diaz as he finishes the game that he started more than a decade ago.


**I do not own Star vs The Forces of Evil and all of its characters**

 **Star vs The Forces of Evil belongs to Daron Nefcy and The Walt Disney Company, all rights reserved.**

* * *

 _"21"..._

With a swift surprised staff swing, the swirling wind produced afterwards quickly extinguished the demon's flame.

 _"20"..._

He ground his teeth out of vexation. He had hoped that his preemptive strike would've done more damage before they'd noticed him. He rolled behind the dead burnt hollow tree to dodge the incoming wave of fire. Three clones approached the tree, just to find nobody behind it.

He emerged from the ether behind them and quickly blew off their flame.

 _"17"..._

The rest of them soon came to the realisation of the situation and surrounded him. At least, they thought they did. He quickly broke the envelopment before they noticed, and after a lash of his staff, their numbers dropped by two.

 _"15"..._

He figured that this was too easy, and decided to slow down a bit, have some fun. After all, this was the last of the clones.

One of them finally got a good shot on him, but the lance's descent was blocked by the battle-hardened stick of metal. He pushed the opponent away before drawing a katana from its sheath. The strike was clean and fast, he did not even glance back at the fallen foe before mercifully blow out the flame.

 _"14"..._

Katana, on one hand, staff on the other, the hooded man continued his offensive. The staff landed on one of the clones head, knocking it out before he used the katana to block one of the spears that were coming at him, then swiftly taking his opponent to the ground with a staff to the knee. Wasting no time, he quickly raised back his one bladed sword on the other hand to stop the other spear that was coming from splitting his face into two, before giving the wielder a kick in the gut.

 _"11"..._

Another spear was heading towards him. _"When will they ever learn,"_ he smirked.

He grabbed the thrusting spear and embedded it into the tree behind him. While the wielder was busy pulling it out, he's already blown out her flame.

 _"10"_... He started to feel bored of the counting

Their numbers are low, and figuring that they couldn't survive without proper coordination, they devised a plan. First, four of them are going to charge into him accordingly in all direction.

That attack didn't turn out so well for them. The hooded wanderer carefully ducked their lance tips, which tangled into each other and locked them into an immobile position. _"Too easy,"_ He smiled as he extinguished all four flame.

 _"6"..._

They immediately lose all their organisation after their plan failed spectacularly with minimal effort from their enemy. They began to panic and ran in many directions.

One by one, their dwindled numbers started to become even smaller

 _"5"..._ He said as he stroke his staff on a slower clone's head, blowing of the flame in the process.

When the others thought they were safe, out of nowhere, the six-pack warrior appeared in front of one of the middle one, in perfect range for his katana to strike.

 _"4".._.

Amused by the last one's attempt to run away, he decided to threw his staff.

Bullseye.

He began to cross out the flames from this small, rugged notebook.

 _"20, 19, 18,..."_ He mumbled _"10,9,8..._ " but then his pen stopped striking _"3"_ He stopped his counting, realising that something was wrong.

 _"There are still three of them left!"_ He yelled. The echo travelled between the valley, scaring off the crows on the dead, lifeless trees.

He glanced back at his fallen enemy. It was trying to crawl away.

He crashed his feet down into the ground in front of his former enemy, before drawing his katana out again.

 _"You!"_ he scolded _"Where are the remaining two!"_

 _"I-I don't know wha-what you're talking about'_

 _"Don't play dumb with me Hekapoo, I've played your game for far too long..."_ He pointed the tip of his katana at her _"Where is the rest of your clone!"_

 _"Okay, fine, fine! They're on the other side of the Afflicted forest, th-they guard her palace, carved within a large hollow tree, okay. Now can I just go?"_

He grinned, kneel down so that his face could be right next to her's

 _"No."_

That was the last word that clone ever heard.

* * *

"Wordt wakker!" A loud, husky voice knocked Marco out of his dream.

 _"Sorry, I just have this crazy dream again. It's been stuck in my head for a week now. Every time I close my eyes, I swear."_

"Echt waar? Kijk maar uit jongeman, dat zou een teken voor de toekomst kunnen zijn."

 _"I hope! I've been chasing this one thing for 14 years now."_

"Ik ben binnen als je me nodig hebt. Je zou misschien moeten overwegen om soms binnen te slapen, winter komt eraan."

 _"Winter? This place is always hot and moist."_

"Dit jaar zal anders zijn. Het is de 125ste van Grognok. Deze plaats zal een ijzige hel worden."

 _"Wait, 125th of what?"_

"Kom op, ontbijt is klaar."

* * *

 **Author's note:** **A piece of drabble, inspired by the story Marco told us in Running with Scissors. Hope you guys enjoy it, and as always, feedback and criticisms are welcome.**

 **An explanation for that last scene. Marco's supposed to be infiltrating some monks, who speak some kind of "ancient" language. Well, spoiler alert, it's Dutch. No reason for it other than I have a Dutch friend who can help me translate the sentences. So pop those sentences into Google translate if you want to understand it more clearly.**


End file.
